First, we must reflect.
Taking a step back is the first step in breaking free from a stale habit. Reflecting on and analyzing your existing routine will help you determine which areas are stifling your progress. Are you having issues with your bench’s lockout? It’s possible that you have weak triceps that need to be addressed. Is it been a long since you set a new squat PR? Perhaps your legs aren’t getting enough rest in between sessions. Spending time identifying the issues in your routine will help you in developing the most efficient solutions.
Introduce
Sometimes the problem is just a lack of variation in your routine. Do you find yourself doing the same exercises every day? Perhaps it’s time to add something new to the mix. Adding additional exercises that target different muscle groups or perform different movements can help you make significant progress. Changing things up on a regular basis guarantees wider coverage in terms of muscle growth, aiding in the prevention of muscular imbalances that may be impeding your progress.
Reorder
Having the same order of workouts every session, similar to completing the same exercises, can create some plateauing. If you regularly do shoulder presses after benching, you’ll never get to train it when your energy is at its peak. The same is true if you only squat after you deadlift or if you only do lunges after you run on the treadmill. Allowing your routines to alter order from time to time guarantees that you can push each specific muscle group or compound lift. Whatever your gym goals are, changing up your workout scheduling will undoubtedly help you achieve them.
Bring It!
Variety is said to be the spice of life, but it’s definitely the spice of the gym. Changing up your lifting regimen is the most effective technique to expose your muscles to new stimuli and allow them to grow to their full potential. So try that new lift you’ve been wanting to do, and start your next gym session with the activity you typically leave until last. Maintain your body’s adaptation by keeping your exercise as fresh as possible.
The human body is incredible.
Whatever we put at it, it adapts and adapts swiftly. Bodybuilders and strength athletes face “plateaus” due to their bodies’ rapid response to change. You know what I’m talking about; no matter how hard you train, you’re not becoming bigger or stronger.
The entire process of muscle gain involves your body responding to increasing loads and stress. Simply put, it works as follows:
When you lift X amount of weight, your body produces extra muscle to compensate.
When you gain X pounds, your body builds additional muscle to compensate.
And so on…
If it were so easy, we’d all be billionaires!
As experienced lifters know, repeating the same regimen week after week will not result in continual progress. The human body adjusts to stress far too quickly. Your body will no longer sense the need to expand after it has adapted to the stress level of your existing routine.
Regular training adjustments are crucial for long-term growth. Professional bodybuilders cycle their workouts often, changing exercises and incorporating advanced training techniques. They know exactly what type of training and diet they need to gain muscle or burn fat based on their experience.
So, what can you do to shake things up and break through plateaus? The pros employ a variety of strategies to increase muscular growth. Here are 15 ways to change up your workout program and gain muscle!
Boost Intensity
Intensity leads to muscle growth. This one is first because I believe it is the most significant. Many of the tactics discussed in this article will make your workout more intense. Classic examples include drop sets, supersets, negatives, and slow reps. Reduced rest times, circuits, forced reps, and other methods can also be used to improve the intensity of your workout. When you’ve been following the same workout program for a while, it’s easy to get trapped in a rut; you may believe you’re working hard, but your intensity level has been gradually decreasing without you realizing it.
Vary Your Exercises
Each muscle group can be trained using a variety of various exercises. Many weight lifters become trapped doing the same exercises week after week. They eliminated exercises that they “do not like.” To keep growing, you must target your target muscles with a variety of activities. You should switch frequently. Many seasoned bodybuilders seldom repeat a workout.
Implement Drop Sets
Drop sets are one of those shock tactics that, when done properly, may blast you past a difficult plateau. Drop sets work because by forcing more reps out by gradually lowering the weight. This forces more blood into the target muscle group and generates more muscle tearing, which encourages more growth after muscle tissue regeneration. Drop sets are straightforward. Do a set until you can’t do another rep, then drop the weight, do another set, and so on. You can complete 3-6 sets in total.
One of the most common type of drop sets are “down the rack” dumbbell bicep curls, which begin with a standard curl weight and progress down the rack, going to failure on each set.
Alter the days on which you work each muscle.
Changing the sequence of your workout days might have a significant impact on your results. In general, work your weakest muscle groups first thing in the week when you have the greatest energy. Change, like anything else in your routine, will benefit you. One thing to keep in mind when switching is to give each muscle group enough rest, bearing in mind that the muscle group may be attacked as a secondary. For example, you should not practice biceps on Monday and back on Tuesday because your biceps are required as a secondary muscle in all back (pulling) movements. You can also cycle your workout days so that each day of the week focuses on a different muscle group.
Make use of supersets
Following a large compound exercise with an isolated movement is one of the most effective techniques to promote growth in a difficult muscle area. Bench press-flat bench flys are an excellent example. You finish your bench press as usual, but immediately follow it up with a rigorous set of dumbbell flys. On the second set, you don’t need to use heavy weights; instead, concentrate on muscular contraction. This suggests that you should slow down and squeeze at the top of the movement. Here are some good supersets for compound isolation:
The military press then advances to the front.
Close grip bench followed by skullcrushers
Squats followed by leg extensions
Bench press followed by dumbbell flys
Pull up with a wide grip (or lat pull down), then straight arm pull down.
Chin up followed by barbell curl
Cycling Weekly Reps
This is how weekly rep cycling works. Week one: 12 reps per set, week two: 10 reps per set, week three: 8 reps per set, week four: 6 reps per set, week five: repeat. Nobody knows how many reps you should do for maximum muscle growth. What we do know is that it is between the ages of 6 and 12. So start with 12 reps and gradually reduce to 6 over 4 weeks, increasing the weight as you go. If you follow a proper diet (which you should if you want any of the ideas in this post to work), you should be able to lift significantly more than you could in week 1 for 12 reps by week 5.
Modify Your Training Schedule
Less is more when it comes to muscle building. You don’t work out more if you want to get bigger. This is one of the most common rookie lifting blunders. Do you believe that cutting back to 3 days from 4 or 5 will result in less muscle building? You’re mistaken. Your body will most likely benefit from the extra sleep. Drawbacks
Negatives are incredibly beneficial in terms of increasing strength, progressing through exercises/weights, and breaking through plateaus. Negatives are exercises in which you concentrate on the negative aspects of a movement by utilizing very heavy weights (greater than your 1 rep max) and a sluggish movement. Spotters are required for practically all types of negatives, so if you train alone, skip these – you’ll injure yourself. barbell preacher curl, bench press, close grip bench, pull ups (jumping up and slowly descending), and leg extension are all examples of negatives.
Are you unable to perform pullups? Simply do as many as you can before finishing the set with negatives. You’ll gain strength quickly. Use a broad grip to target your lats rather than your biceps.
Reps at a Slow (Controlled) Pace
Slow reps emphasize control and contraction. For the same number of reps, use a lesser weight and a slower movement. A 3-1-3 count should be used. “1 thousand” means “one thousand.” On your way down, pause for “1 one thousand” and then count that three times. Slow reps allow you to perform the same number of reps as usual while putting your muscles under strain for a considerably longer period of time.
Partially Reps
Alternate reps, like slow reps, work the muscle area harder by putting it under stress for a longer amount of time. You take an exercise and tweak it by not performing a full rep. For instance, alternate dumbbell curls. Instead of just letting your left arm hang while your right arm curls, you do the exercise with your left arm slightly bent and under strain. This prevents blood from escaping the muscle (keeping “the pump”) and forces it to work incredibly hard to support the weight.
After the set, your muscle has been under strain (pressure) for twice as long as it would have been with ordinary alternate curls. This technique can be used with a variety of exercises, including dumbbell shoulder presses, dumbbell benches, dumbbell tricep extensions, and kickbacks.
Alter the order of your workouts
If you asked me how they should organize their exercises, I would say huge compounds first, then isolations. However, your body, like everything else in your routine, swiftly adapts. Change up your workouts…Do dips first on chest day, extensions before squats, and so on.
Pre-Fatiguing (or Pre-Exhausting)
Your Musculature
Another old-school plateau-busting approach is pre-fatiguing (also known as pre-exhausting). Using this method, you pre-fatigue the muscle group you want to attack with an isolation exercise before hitting it with a large compound exercise. Here are a few good examples:
Squat followed by leg extension
Bench press followed by flys
Row followed by rear delt fly
Front increase, then military press
Compulsory Reps
Forced reps are simple: perform as many strict reps as you can without assistance, then employ a spotter to aid you in completing another 2 or more reps. You can employ forced reps to get an extra 2 reps out (for example, 12 on your standard 10 set), or you can increase the weight by roughly 15% and use your spotter to assist you in forcing out your regular 10 reps.
Pyramid Sets
Pyramid sets, as the name implies, begin with a little weight and progress to a heavy weight and/or back down. After a sufficient warm-up, the first set in your pyramid should be with a weight that you can put out 12 reps with good form. Your following set will consist of 8-10 reps, 6-8 reps, and 4 reps. After that, you may always go back to 12 reps. Cheating is not permitted in this situation. On ALL sets, you should perform slow and controlled reps.
Take a vacation week
The most misused part of weight training is rest. Bodybuilding is not like marathon running; in this sport, less is more. You may discover that taking a week off from training is the best thing for you at times. Our bodies (and minds) require rest intervals from intensive resistance training on a regular basis. Our workout routines stress the entire body, not just the muscles. How do you know when it’s time to take a break? Your body will alert you to the fact. However, as a general rule, every 8-12 weeks.
So, now it’s time to go back to the gym and put some of these tactics into action!